As they often are, though, the analysts are wrong: Black Ops is selling like gang-busters and absolutely shattering North American sales records after its firs 24 hours alone.

Activision and Treyarch have a lot to be proud of here: in the first day of being on sale, Black Ops has managed to earn over $360 million in North America alone. That’s actually $50 million more than what Modern Warfare 2 managed to make in its first twenty four hours when it was launched last year.

What does this mean? Well, Call of Duty: Black Ops has not only shattered American game sales records, but also sales records for the entertainment market as a whole, soundly beating huge opening week blockbusters like Avatar, The Dark Knight Returns and Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince.

Of course, games cost quite a bit more than films — six times more, in fact — so video games aren’t more popular than Hollywood. Yet. Give it time, though.